Hot Summer Nights
by Cats070911
Summary: Wine, vodka and oppressive heat make for interesting conversation on a dark night. Just stays T-rated I hope.


**Author's note:** all the usual disclaimers apply. And no, I can't actually see this happening but I was asked to write about a hit night they spend together so I took that literally!

* * *

"Any ideas?" Tommy asked staring at the blank sheet of paper in front of him. The night was too warm to be bothered but he had to make the speech next Saturday.

"None whatsoever."

"That doesn't help me Havers."

"It's too hot, besides you're the Oxford scholar." She poured more chilled white wine into his glass.

"Worth much more than a dollar!"

Barbara frowned at her boss. "Sorry Sir?"

"Oxford scholar, slang for dollar. It's a retort."

"Okay...so what do you _want_ to say about Hillier?" Barbara fiddled with the knob on her fan. It was already on high but it was making little headway against the sweaty fug that was accompanying the hottest London night in fifty years. "Are you cool enough?"

"I'm okay," he replied undoing another button on his shirt. Barbara tried not to stare and wondered how hot it would need to get before he took it off altogether. "What I'd like to say can't be said at his testimonial dinner!"

"So DI Lynley, doyen of the Met, is going to lie?"

"Not funny Sergeant! What the hell else am I going to do? Stand up and say he's an arrogant, egotistical, self-centred, overbearing and ineffectual Commissioner?"

Barbara lost the battle not to laugh. "At least you'd be telling the truth. Why are you doing it anyway and not someone further up the totem pole?"

"You have to ask?" he replied grumpily. Barbara frowned and looked perplexed. "Because of my title. As Lord Asherton I bring prestige and credibility."

"Ah, yeah, I suppose you do."

Barbara sat in the chair opposite and fanned herself with her TV guide. Sweat had darkened the armpits of her green shirt which was clinging, damp and alluring, to her chest. Tommy's desire to lick off the beads of moisture on her neck disturbed him. Barbara was his friend and partner. He should not feel those things about her. He normally controlled his growing feelings for her but when she had disappeared a few minutes earlier and returned it was obvious she had removed her bra to get cooler. He was now having trouble concentrating on anything else.

"I'm being used in other words and I can't be myself. I have to play a game."

"You shouldn't feel obliged to Sir. Surely you're allowed to maintain your integrity. No one should have to pretend or hide their true feelings."

"Unfortunately I do," he replied sadly not thinking about Hillier. "Sometimes I wish I could just say what I feel."

"Then do it," she said earnestly locking his gaze.

He had agreed to the speech because Hillier had agreed to stop pressuring him to take promotion for another year if he did it. It was not something he could tell Barbara. He looked across and smiled as she tried to keep cool. It was making him hotter. He swallowed hard; too hard not to be noticed. "If you're hot go and change into something without sleeves," he ordered dismissively.

"I don't have anything without sleeves unless I sit around in my underwear. Where has this weather come from?"

"A high the came up from the Med..."

"It was a rhetorical question," she laughed, "you came over so I could help with your speech so we had better do it."

Tommy tried to focus on anything but the thought of her underwear. _Practical and conservative no doubt._ "So arrogant and egotistical...we could say proud."

"You can, it's you speech."

For the next hour they toyed with ideas until the wine ran out. "I have vodka in the freezer."

"Excellent, make mine a large one."

The vodka inspired them to sarcastic fawning with creative, but always oleaginous, servility. They laughed at their words and reminisced about Hillier highlights. Tommy had eventually undone all his shirt buttons and pulled it from his trousers. As he sat hunched over his laptop with his dark rimmed spectacles sliding down his nose and sipping a tumbler of vodka Barbara thought he looked Kerouac-esque - troubled and intense but raw and sexy. She decided she had had too much vodka.

"Geez it's getting hotter in here!" Barbara refilled their glasses with the last of the vodka.

Tommy looked up. "Do you want to find a fountain to swim in?"

Her eyes lit up. "There's one in the park a few blocks from here. We could...what now?" The lights suddenly died. Barbara swore then added "that's all we need!" She stumbled to the window and pulled back the curtain. "It's totally dark! Normally even in a blackout you can see light haze in the distance. It must be widespread."

"Everyone using their fans I suspect. It's overloaded the grid. Is it any cooler with the window open?"

Barbara was blasted by a hot, sultry wind. "Definitely not. How come your fancy house doesn't have air conditioning so we could go there?"

"Because it is normally adequate without it. It's not like we're part of the British Raj!"

"Yeah? Well they used to go into the mountains for summer to escape the heat."

"Unfortunately we are a bit far from any mountains tonight." Tommy's eyes slowly adjusted to the dark but he could see nothing.

"What do we do now?"

"Wait. It shouldn't be too long," he said reassuringly.

"Why does the dark always feel both comforting and threatening?"

"Because we can hide in it. People tell each other the craziest things in the dark. During school break Judith and I used to sit up and tell each other about boarding school and who we had fallen in love with that term."

"You both went to single sex boarding schools."

Tommy laughed. "Don't make assumptions and don't sound so outraged. Miss Ball was my first crush. She worked in the school library. Long flowing auburn hair, glasses, and the most enormous set of..."

"Sir!"

"I became a library monitor and followed her around for weeks. What about you? Who was your first crush?"

"A boy called Tim. He had wonderfully curly hair. We were close for a while during school."

"What happened to him?"

"Married and had four kids I heard and went bald."

They sat in thoughtful silence until Tommy spoke. "Deborah was the first woman I was really in love with; you know that heady feeling where everything is perfect about them."

"No, not really."

"Oh Barbara, don't tell me you've never been in love?"

"No...yeah...well not really. Not where they love you back."

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pried."

"It's fine...really."

"What was he like? I can hear it in your voice Barbara. There was someone wasn't there? Someone you fell for?"

Barbara exhaled loudly through her nose. "Yeah. You know, standard stuff. Tall, dark, gloriously handsome with beautiful, expressive brown eyes and when we met he had a great body."

Tommy wondered fleetingly if she was describing him but dismissed the thought. She'd never be so bold. And what was wrong with his body now?

"So it was pure lust then?"

"No, he had other qualities. Do you think it's getting hotter in here?" Tommy could hear her fanning herself.

"Yes it is. Do you mind if I remove my shirt?"

"No, of course not," she laughed, "it's barely on and I have seen you without it before. Men have so many advantages."

"If you're hot, turn off the light at the switch so if power comes back we're still in the dark then take your shirt off too." He had meant it innocently but it did not sound like that, even to his ears.

An awkward silence hung between them until he heard the rustling of Barbara's shirt. "That is a bit cooler actually." Barbara did not know if Tommy realised she had no bra on. She felt quite wanton being semi-naked only a few feet from him having just told him obliquely that she loved him. If the lights came on now he would see it had affected her quite strongly. The fear of being seen only made her feel sexier.

Tommy heard a zipper open and Barbara wriggling around. He had been thinking about her generous breasts being free but now he wondered what else she was freeing. "You okay?"

"In for a penny. I took my jeans off too."

Tommy stifled a moan that built in his throat. He wondered about her underwear again. He wanted to run his fingers up her legs and tear her panties off with his teeth. He had no idea how that actually worked but it always sounded good and he would be happy to experiment. He stood and let his trousers fall to the floor; his wallet making a thud. "Excellent idea."

"If the lights come back you have to close your eyes until I redress," she told him.

"Is that fair? Then you get to see me?"

"You're a man. Men can be seen in boxers or whatever you wear without issue."

"Tonight silk boxers to be cooler. Silk always feels so good against the skin." He heard a faint gasp and smiled.

"Natural fibres usually do."

"What happened to him?"

"Who?" she asked nervously buying time to construct an answer.

Tommy was sticking to her couch so slid onto the floor. He bumped her naked leg. "Sorry, I was too hot up there. I thought it might be cooler down here. Your browned-eyed man with unnamed qualities."

"He never knew I existed, well not in that way." Barbara moved onto the floor near his voice.

"I'm sure he did," Tommy replied huskily, "any man would notice you Barbara even under all those coats and protective layers." There was another awkward silence. "Sorry, have I upset you? I didn't mean to."

"No, it's okay. And I have no protective layers on in this heat."

Tommy chuckled then pondered how far he should take the conversation. Half a bottle of wine, a sizable amount of vodka, a hot night and the woman he loved almost naked only a few feet from him was a volatile combination. "I've noticed you ever since our first case. Lately I've noticed little else."

Another silence preceded her answer. "You've had too much to drink."

"Have I? Maybe I needed the dark and the alcohol to break past those barriers."

"Break past your own maybe. Mine are not alcohol soluble." She laughed self-consciously. "Rod Stewart might have been right. Don't say a word my virgin child, just let your inhibitions run wild."

Tommy moved closer to her. "Barbara..."

"Hmm?"

"Remember that time in the garden when I tried to kiss you and you ran?"

"Yeah. My father had just died. You were being controlling and I didn't see how a night with you would help."

"I've often wondered how life would have turned if you'd let me kiss you. I wasn't after a one night stand Barbara. I was starting to fall in love with you."

"You what? No! There was Deborah and then Helen, you couldn't have."

"You pushed me to Helen if you remember. I thought you'd made it clear you weren't interested in me."

"Is that why you behaved like a knob when I tried dating?"

"Yeah, I guess so. I've felt something for years Barbara. Haven't you ever felt anything?" Tommy groped around in the dark seeking to find her. His hand brushed her breast and they both gasped in shock. "Sorry."

"I wouldn't run. In the garden. If you tried to kiss me. I wouldn't run now."

Tommy could not see a thing but he knew instinctively where she was in relation to him. He reached up and easily found her face. He stroked it with his fingertips and felt her shiver. He cupped her face and pulled her towards him. Her breast slid across his chest and they both moaned before their lips met. Tommy wanted to be gentle and loving but years of repressed longing overtook him. He ran his hand possessively over her back and down to her hip. He made his intentions clear when he slipped his hand between cloth and skin and squeezed roughly.

Barbara gasped at the line of fire that that his hand traced. There was a hint of desperation and need in his kiss that was strangely satisfying. Tommy wanted her almost as much as she needed him. As their tongues explored so did Barbara's hands. His back was more muscular than she had expected and his chest had a fine down that she had never noticed.

He greedily sucked a path down her throat and paused as if asking permission. Her answer was a groan and her own exploration of the silken boxers as her hand gradually moved closer to the buttons. Tommy licked the sweat running down her neck before he began to gently circle her breast with just the tip of his tongue. His other hand made her yelp with surprise when it pinched its mate. When her hand tightened around him he let out a low, carnal growl.

Barbara began to laugh. "Did you just growl Sir?"

Tommy stopped his ministrations and moved his face close to hers acutely aware that she still had a very possessive hold on him. "Yes, I suppose I did. I don't normally do that. At least I don't think I do." He began to feel as if he had overstepped a line but the way she was using the silk to maintain his interest told another story.

She stopped and removed her hand. "Are we going to regret this in the morning? When it gets light can we ever look each other in the eye?"

"Barbara, it's not the dark or the hot night that makes me want to make love to you. I don't want to make love to anyone but you; night, day, cold, hot. I'm in love with you Barbara but if you don't feel the same way we can stop."

"No don't stop. You knew I meant you didn't you!"

"I hoped." This time the kiss was softer and more loving as they both slipped down to lie on the floor. Slowly their hands resumed their exploration of the other's body amid delighted groans.

After tracing his tongue over the scars on her stomach Tommy finally reached the elastic of her underwear. They did not seem to be the functional type he had expected. He took the elastic in his teeth and pulled them gently away from her. With a little effort he could tear them off with his teeth. He let them snap back against her skin and she moaned appreciatively.

"Barbara, I'd like to growl again."

"That's okay Sir. It's actually quite hot!"

"So are you!"

Barbara laughed softly as she pushed his head back down. Tommy's hungry growl and the sound of tearing fabric filled her senses. "Oh my...I love you Tommy."


End file.
